As one parent points out in this informative half-hour program: "When we got the diagnosis, autism was like this 900-pound word that sat on my chest and sucked the air out."

Award-winning independent filmmaker Robert Parish knows that sinking feeling. When his son Jack was diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in 1996, Parish sank into a deep emotional hole. He dug his way out by pointing the lens of his video camera in Jack's suddenly disorganized direction. The footage Parish collected ultimately became the critically acclaimed film COME BACK JACK -- the first nationally broadcast documentary that shattered many of the myths associated with an autism diagnosis.

AUTISM: WARMING TO ITS COLD EMBRACE features the perspectives of many of the passionate autism advocates Parish has met along his personal ASD journey, including Dr. Patricia Manning-Courtney and Jennifer Brown of The Kelly O'Leary Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders, Stephen Shore of Adelphi University, and other parents of children with autism spectrum disorders. Their points of view offer warmth, understanding, and inspiration to anyone who has a child or adult with autism in their lives.